The presence of women in history is often shown not overtly, but in code or symbolic fashion. Research on 19th century Chilean caricature in the illustrated satirical press, has provided examples of civic allegories, one of the less evident forms of presenting the femenine figure in the past. The Republic, the Motherland, Liberty, the Law and Justice became institutional and valoric elements in Chilean política! caricature and emblems of liberal thought in the struggle for the secularization of society. The personification and visual representation of the key political ideas, made them accesible to the people and created a budding republican folklore based in the femenine category.  The presence of women in history is often shown not overtly, but in code or symbolic fashion. Research on 19th century Chilean caricature in the illustrated satirical press, has provided examples of civic allegories, one of the less evident forms of presenting the femenine figure in the past. The Republic, the Motherland, Liberty, the Law and Justice became institutional and valoric elements in Chilean política! caricature and emblems of liberal thought in the struggle for the secularization of society. The personification and visual representation of the key political ideas, made them accesible to the people and created a budding republican folklore based in the femenine category.